Where have all the big games gone?

My Gaming Worlds just flipped on their heads in about a year or so... so Weird

  The four games I play the most are X-Wing, Armada, Pathfinder RPG, and Warhammer 40,000 (40k).  It's been very interesting at our local club to hear how perceptions have changed the past few years.  Let's look at their traditional place in at least my local gamers' minds just a few years ago and what my pals and gaming buddies are saying now

Not so long ago

  Games Workshop, the publisher of 40k, has been the bastion or rules bloat (23 books and $600 just to own all of the Astartes factions' rules), ivory tower isolation from their own community, infrequent FAQs that rarely address core issues in the tournament scene, and laughable playtesting (to the point that its almost impossible to believe any has happened).

  Paizo, the publisher of Pathfinder, has had a reputation of great communication and interaction with its fan base.  They support a well like PFS competitive play system, and have made the old 3.5 DnD system durable to the point of immortality.

  X-Wing has repeatedly been touted the example of a game team that has been responsive to players and provided both a well balanced and quick play style that uses a simple but elegant rule system that brings all of those iconic Star Wars ships to the table

  Armada seems very niche and the complaint is that the meta is too small and progression of the ship releases is hampering any real innovation in fleet design or competitive play.

Times. they is a chang'n

So where are we now?

  GW is releasing a new 8th edition of 40k.  They're daily answering dozens and dozens of questions online.  They are releasing new articles showing features of the new rules.  Both the GW Prime studios and their designer off-shoot, Forge World are replying to questions in a 24 cycle via email and the entire system is being streamlined and balanced after extensive in house and external testing... How on Earth is this GW?!  They've also advanced the plot and brought back an iconic (though controversial) character from the past.  This community is suddenly alive, excited (mostly), and feels connected to the design studio

  Pathfinder is an RPG that has like 50 classes, that each have a half dozen or more archetypes... so yeah, like 300 somewhat different classes... yeah.  Not to mention hundreds of spells and thousands of special abilities.  The game system is bloated like a beached whale sitting for a month in the summer sun.  Book banning is becoming almost a required thing and so many classes are made laughably obsolete by "new and improved!!" classes with eerily similar names (Hunter vs Ranger anyone?).

  Armada, seemingly paired down  by FFG to a dedicated staff of one, has stayed well balanced, handled its issues well, avoided bloat completely, and seems to understand that good models with slight variations and an avoidance of creep at all costs is a smart move and that awesome campaigns and upgrades really can bring the game alive.  Almost constantly X-Wing players are pining for the balance and team play campaign in Armada to roll over to its big brother (with smaller ships).

  X-Wing has freaking jumped the rails and innovation is dead while the Scum faction and the obscure and stupid K-Wing (using Imperial tech Imperials don't even get) run rough shod over the meta. The solution currently is to let every faction do what the other factions shtick is.  Large ships are given ridiculous abilities and power creep is insane.  Constant calls for a campaign are ignored.

  Old baseline 2 stats are a joke and iconic ships like X-Wings, A-Wings, TIE Fighters, TIE Interceptors, and the Firespray are as rare in competitive play as a Jar-Jar Binks fan.  FAQs are abysmally slow and respond to yesterday's problems and crap playtesting has basically made the conclusion that the flying toilet Jumpmaster was the greatest ship ever in Star Wars.  An almost unknown ship like the Protectorate Starfighter has become the fast and agile monster that A-Wings and Interceptors used to be for about 5 less points than a comparable build for them would be.  And the newer rag-tag faction (Scum) is way more variable and lethal than the military polish of the Empire or the supposedly legendary pilots of the Rebellion (pft.. Wedge?  Luke? nobodies... all hail the legends Omega Leader, Backdraft, Manaroo, Fenn Rau, Miranda stupid future person, and more!

  FFG people are never seen in Community spaces, and they let the entire May the 4th pass without even a peep... not in the form of an article... not in a report from their seminal Worlds event... nothing.  Mindbogglingly silent for no apparent reason.  Token and stat inflation is beyond stupid (5 dice gunnery, a focus, target lock, and evade token?  Meh, who can't do that.. or what Scum or Rebel large ship can't).  FFG has become the silent, stumbling, next best thing you have to buy, monster that GW was... while GW has daily articles and almost instant workday feedback directly from the design team!! How did this happen?

Lost and Blind... this guy too

A New Hope?

  I'm curious what has happened?  Did FFG pull resources or key figures off of X-Wing and divert them to one of their many projects?  Have too many games diluted their talent pool to where dart boarding stats and only pumping out new releases is the only priority they can maintain?  Maybe all those guys that were so in touch with gamers and game design got poached by GW who has clearly been hurt by X-Wing and recently parted ways with FFG?

  I really don't know.  I hope a couple new mechanics are introduced that let the old stuff not called Biggs compete a bit better.  Maybe turrets need to be player rotated like the Lancer's or something?  Or maybe (and I hate even typing this) a 2.0 ruleset that starts with Waves 1-3 and slowly brings the rest up to date with a bit more granularity and variance without slagging character and uniqueness from the factions in the name of hamfisted balance?

  Hopefully this is just a hiccup... but that is slowly becoming less and less likely... oh well, time to paint up my Space Marines and fly those Imperial Light cruisers!